AMD’s Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition has the fastest stock speed, but still not impressive

Is AMD the new king of desktop chip? It may just be. The latest flagship of AMD, the new Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition desktop processor will be sold at stock frequency of 3.7GHz, but that’s not all. It’s going to cost a dirt cheap price of $195.

In comparison, Intel’s Extreme processor Core-i7 990X has a speed of 3.46GHz and is priced at about $999 though it’s a six-core processor, and Intel’s Core i7-2600K processor is clocked at 3.4GHz with a price of $329. Yes, both has a higher turbo frequency, and both are unlocked and has higher potential in overclocking compared to AMD, but if you’re not the faint of heart to go beyond those, then this is considered a huge bargain for a quad-core processor.

Of course, those have a huge gap when compared to the 980. If you want to compare, Intel has a slightly better processor that is within similar budget. The Core i5-2500K is only about $30 more, and constantly outperform the Phenom II X4 980. What’s more, it also has an unlocked multiplier, which means, a huge potential when it comes to overclocking too.

So is this a win in the bargain sector, or still a pale product from AMD?